OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



187 



fruit in 1908." It has borne what appeared to be fully developed 

 acorns in several seasons, but so far they have never germinated when 

 sown. These acorns are of a dark chocolate colour, and, with their 

 neat finely scaled cups, into which they are very deeply set, give a 

 pretty effect. Bean mentions that it is allied to Q. macedonica, and 

 indeed the long narrow shape of the slightly indented leaves is similar 

 in both, though Libani is much the lighter of the two in colour- 

 Although Dr. Henry calls it "A small tree or large shrub . . . 

 extremely rare in England," there is nothing of the shrub about my 

 plant, which has every appearance of being likely to make a big shapely 

 tree and that before many years are past. I cannot now recall the 

 provenance of my plants, which I am glad to say are all thriving and 

 quite hardy. 



Q. lobata (Nee). — Valley Oak is a very fine, shapely, deciduous tree 

 in California, often 100 ft. in height, but is said to grow very slowly 

 in this country, into which it was first introduced about 1870. 



The bark is darkish grey in colour ; the obovate leaves have many 

 long narrow lobes, and are not specially impressive either in size or 

 shape. The very long, slender, conical, subsessile acorns are set in 

 deep hemispherical cups, and develop in one season ; they are said 

 to be edible, and to have been largely used as food by the Indians : 

 the timber is poor and brittle, and only good for firewood. The tree is 

 common enough in California, but is not found growing wild outside the 

 limits of that State. It is nearly allied to another Western white oak, 

 Q. Garryana, but can easily be distinguished from it by the presence of 

 long, drooping, sterile branchlets, which give this species a weeping 

 willow-like aspect when it approaches maturity. It has also affinity 

 with the Eastern white oaks. 



In 1864 the well-known French botanist, Alphonse de Candolle, 

 was inclined to regard the leading Pacific white oaks, lobata, Douglasii, 

 and Garryana, as mere forms of Q. Robur, and though I don't suppose 

 that such a doctrine would now find many adherents, yet it seems 

 clear that these Pacific oaks have a much closer relation to their 

 European congeners than to those found east of the Rockies, and 

 along these lines may be found the true reason why the flora of the 

 West are generally found to thrive so much better in Europe than 

 those of the Eastern States. The Kew specimen is over 30 ft. 

 high, and that of my friend Lord Ducie exceeds 20 ft., while mine, 

 " proximus longo tamen intervalio," has only reached 3 ft. 3 in., 

 though apparently in robust health. I have no record of the quarter 

 from which I obtained my plant, but my impression is that it came 

 from Messrs. Barbier of Orleans, who in the pre-war days used to 

 have a large and varied stock. My friend F. R. S. Balfour, who has 

 often observed this species in its own habitat, considers it to be more 

 like our Q. pedunculata in general appearance than any other Western 

 oak. 



Q. X Lucombeana (Sweet) (fig. 19). — This handsome and well-known 

 hybrid between Q. Cerris and Q. Suber originated from the accidental 



VOL. XLV. O 



